More fun Breakfasts

A few years ago, I decided to attempt an old trick my mother used to do. She would make animal-shaped pancakes. She had this wonderful old electric griddle that you could put 6 pancakes on at a time. The shape of the pancakes were indelibly etched into the griddle.

Every now and then, not so often as to spoil us, on a Saturday, Mom would make animal shapes out of pancake batter. She’s always been great at drawing bunnies and cows, foxes and goats, and she’d use that same talent to form pancakes into these creative shapes. Us kids LOVED it. We would beg her to make animal shapes every time we had pancakes.

I decided that if she could do it, I ought to be able to. So, one day, I tried it. Just like I remembered, my children loved it. Although the shapes were a little rough (I’m not the artist my mother is), you generally could tell what the animals were and the kids thought it was great fun, putting in their bid for this kind of animal or that kind.

Over a couple of years time, this became a fairly frequent activity. One year, around Christmas, I split the batter into two batches and added food coloring to them - one red, the other green. I made Christmas trees and ornaments to hang on the tree, and I even let the children have M&M’s and red hot’s to decorate their trees. I tried chocolate chips in some and sprinkled nuts in others. I made stockings, stars, a Santa hat, and attempted a train. We had a wonderful time.

We had such a fun time, in fact, that Don got involved. He wouldn’t make any, but he stood over me giving suggestions and critiquing my artistry.

That year, for Christmas, each of us had a similar shaped package under the tree from Don. He buys his own presents every year for the children. We discuss and decide what to get them, I buy it and wrap it from us, and then he goes out and buys his own gifts - just from Dad. He refuses to tell me what the gifts are or give me any hints at all, so it’s always a surprise for me, too, when the children open their presents from Daddy. The children have grown to love this tradition and really appreciate that Daddy chooses gifts for them JUST from him.

So, we all had these odd-shaped packages. I believe Deanna was the first to open hers. She had these wonderful metal pancake shapes with a little wooden handle to lift the shape once the pancake’s ready. Don had given her a little girl shape and a heart. She hugged and kissed her Daddy, then held the heart close to her and smiled over at me. I knew the heart meant something very special to her. She understood it meant that Daddy was telling her she was HIS heart.

Next came Daelyn. He got a dinosaur shape (he LOVES dinosaurs) and a teddy bear - he’s Daddy’s snuggly bear. I just couldn’t believe what a good job Don had done picking out the perfect shapes for each of the children.

After seeing sissy and brother’s shapes, Dane decided he wanted to open his. He got a little boy shape and, his special one from Daddy, a star. You don’t have to think very hard to figure out what this meant. Neither did Dane. He instantly knew that Daddy was telling him he was a star. He hugged Don’s neck excitedly and started babbling about making pancakes for breakfast.

“But Mommy hasn’t opened hers yet,” Don said. “Go ahead, Mommy, open yours.” The kids began chanting “Open yours, Mom, open yours,” so I decided I better get right to that present. I tore off the paper, unraveled the tissue, and what did I find?

A pig and a cow.

Don swears mine had absolutely no meaning - that he bought an 8-pack and carefully chose the ones he wanted to give to the children and gave me the leftovers.

Needless to say, we seldom eat pig- and cow-shaped pancakes. The stars, teddy bears and hearts are sufficient and don’t require that Daddy sleep on the couch.